The Long and Winding Road

Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps, means a little bit more…

Dr. Seuss

I am Magic, the travel blogger and Treeing Walker Coon Hound. My humans and I are traveling in our Class A motor home, and I am documenting these adventures. We are currently on our way from Arizona to Georgia, and it is December, 2019.

Momma Dog and Big Dog and I have been on the road since May 31, 2019 and have stayed in 19 states, experienced four time zones and Tana has put about 10,000 miles on the odometer. We have lots of photos and memories, and for the most part, life is good. We do about the same thing we would do in our previous life-cooking, exercise, laundry, naps, shopping-and we get to see some beautiful things along the way.

After we cried (missing Ashley and Tyler) our way out of Lake Havasu City, Arizona we landed in Catalina State Park on December 2, which is north of Tucson. Momma Dog loved the Saguaro cactus, and made me stand by many of these for photos. We also saw a beautiful early morning sunrise, and would have liked to stay here for a few more days to explore the trails.

Big Dog parked Tana in a parking lot at D. H. Lescombs Winery and Bistro in Deming, New Mexico for our next home. This was a “free” overnight stop through Harvest Hosts, although the humans spent some dollars on wine tasting, a nosh plate, and other goodies including some green hatch chili wine and jerky. After the humans wined and dined, they took a long nap. Later we went out to explore and I saw several bunnies. The next morning, we experienced a stunning sunrise.

On Wednesday, we finally crossed into Texas.

We returned to one of the places we had been before-Fort Stockton RV Park. The humans liked the restaurant here (delicious meatloaf) and I liked the dog park. After we arrived, the humans did lots of laundry-and even found two missing socks from our trip here on November 17. And, we saw a beautiful Texas sunrise. Momma Dog hired an Uber (the one and only in town) and went into Fort Stockton to mail her Christmas cards and some packages. Did you know I also write the annual Smith Christmas letter?

The next stop was South Llano River State Park-another fun place. As we pulled into the ranger headquarters, we were greeted by an armadillo, and saw several more in and around our campground.

It was a beautiful day, and I even had my dinner outside-like a dog picnic. We hiked to the Scenic Overlook Trail and saw a gorgeous sunset. It felt good to the humans to be back in Texas. This state park boasted of their turkey roosting area. We saw the area-but no turkeys were spotted. Momma Dog made some friends with some humans who will be staying at the same place we are in Georgia-so she was kind of excited.

We traveled through Fredericksburg, Texas and were greeted by this “Merry Christmas” sign.

To continue our Texas State Park trail, we stopped in Buescher State Park the next night. Also a pretty state park, we hiked and enjoyed a campfire and thought about Christmas. This park had lots of Spanish moss in the trees, and we spotted about 10-12 deer on the first night there. It felt good to have two nights in one place, and the humans and I had some good relaxation here, a pretty moon and lots of children for our camping neighbors.

Lafayette, Louisiana was the next home on the trip back to Georgia for Christmas. We had a lake view at the KOA, enjoyed a pretty sunset and the next day my humans experienced Louisiana boudin balls and cracklins. They gave one paw up for the boudin balls and were not excited about cracklins. Big Dog also bought sausage and a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. I think pork is big here…

Our day of driving to Gulf Shores, Alabama was filled with rain. Momma Dog and I were a bit stressed by the weather, so I joined her in the seat behind the passenger seat, where one is not forced to look out the gigantic windshield and imagine terrifying crashes. We are thankful that Big Dog is a confident driver!

After a long day of driving we arrived at Gulf Shores, Alabama. It continued to rain and the humans wore their rain jackets. We walked to the water as it was getting dark, and I was happy to get back to Tana-where it was warm and dry. And it was time for my dinner and a nice coon hound nap.

We arrived in Prattsville, Alabama on a cold but sunny Wednesday. The owner drove his backhoe to show us our site, which was next to the woods. And later he gave me a delicious dog treat.

Momma Dog is looking forward to Christmas this year. She has done a bit of decorating in our home and today she hung our stockings. Mine is the small stocking in the middle. I hope it holds some meaty treats.

On Friday, December 13 we arrived in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Momma Dog and Big Dog hosted a dinner for Steve, Jennie and Joanna. And we are so glad to be with them again!

We are enjoying our time with Steve, Jennie and Joanna in Georgia and I will be taking a blog break. We are all waiting for Baby Girl Sankey to arrive in January 2020 and will resume travel later in the year. I have developed some extra anxiety when we are traveling in the RV, so being in one place keeps my tail wagging.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Kind regards and sniffs and woofs-

MAGIC